MASTER 
NEGA  TIVE 
NO.  93-81227 


MICROFILMED  1993 
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AUTHOR: 


ANDREWS,  CHARLES 
'ESLEY 


TITLE: 


ON  THE 
COMPATIBILITY  OF 


PLACE: 


PHILADELPHIA 


DA  TE : 


1872 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRy\RIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MICROFORM  TA R G ET 


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THE  INCOMPATIBILITY 


or 


THEATER-GOma  AO  DANCmG 


WITH 


MEMBERSHIP  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


OFFICE  OF  LEIGHTON  PUBLICATIONS, 

12  26   SANSOM   STREET, 

PHZLADELPHtA« 


•^0^ 


?^ 


Tro"t  e,  3> 


ON  THE 


INCOMPATIBILITY 


OF 


THEATER-GOING   AND   DANCING 


.'A 


WITH 


MEMBERSHIP  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


AN  ADDRESS  OF  THE  CLERGY 


\15.7. 
T*^^^ 


OF  'THB 


CONVOCATION  OF  THE  TAllEY  OF  TIBGINIA. 


TO  THB 


PEOPLE  OF  THEIR  RESPECTIVE  PARISHES. 


OFFICE  OF  LEIGHTON  PUBLICATIONS, 

1225    SANSOM    STREET, 

PHILADELPHIA. 

1872, 


NOTE. 

It  was  stated  in  tlie  first  edition  of  tHs  tra^t,  that  it 
did  not  aspire  to  circulation  beyond  the  congregations 
for  which  it  was  prepared.     But  q&  it  has  been  largely 
caUed  for  by  brethren  elsewhere,  including  ministers 
of  other  denominations  having  like  cause  of  complaint, 
and  equally  concerned  for  the  purity  of  the  Church, 
this  new  and  revised  edition  is  put  forth,  in  the  hope 
(which  is  to  some  extent  warranted    by  experience) 
that  it  will  prove  the  means  of  better  instruction  to 
some  who  are,  or  may  become  candidates  for  admission 
to  the  Church,  and  possibly  a  means  of  recovery  to 
some  who  have  fallen,  and  be  otherwise  useful  at  a 
time  when  so  many  seem  to  be  but  very  imperfectly 
acquainted  with  what  the  vows  taken  in  baptism  and 
confirmation  imply. 


-    i 


t 


I. 


THE  THEATER. 

We  start  with  the  proposition  "that  the  Theater  has 
been  through  its  whole  history,  and  is  now,  a  school  of 
vice.     If  this  ba  true,  the  question  must  be  at  an  end 
with  all  who  have  any  claim  to  the  Christian  character. 
Is  it  true?    The  facts  alleged  in  proof  are,  that  its 
literature  is  often  of  immoral  tendency,  corrupt  and 
corrupting,  both  in  sentiment  and  principle.     Its  per- 
formances are  not  unfrequently  characterized  by  irrev- 
erence and  profanity,  religion  being  made  a  subject  for 
merriment,  if  not  of  derision.  Vice  is  whitewashed  and 
virtually  commended.    The  name  of  God  is  blasphe- 
mously used,  and  piety  ridiculed.    Not  only  do  the 
more  popular  plays  abound  with  low  innuendo  and 
double  entendre,  with  the  usual  accompaniment  of  the 
ballet,  which  no  Christian  can  witness,  but  the  grossest 
indecencies  are  the  ordinary  exhibition  of  the  stage- 
such  as  immodest  dances,  with  exposure  of  the  female 
person,  which  are  the  known  incentives  to  licentious- 
ness  and  crime—so  that  the  theater  is,  as  it  always  has 
been,  the  habitual  resort  of  the  irreligious  and  of  the 
immoral.    It  is  the  expressed  opinion  of  no  less  an 
authority  than  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  his  Essays  on  the 
Drama,  that  no  man  of  dehcacy  would  wish  to  expose 
the  females  of  his  family,  or  youth  of  the  male  sex,  to 

(5) 


// 


M 


D  THE  THEATER. 

what  they  must  witness  at  a  theater.  Touching  the 
London  stage,  he  testifies  distinctly  to  the  fact  that,, 
except  in  cases  pf  some  extraordinary  attraction,  '' per- 
sons of  immoral  character  usually  form  the  principal 
part  of  the  audience":  so  that  no  theater-goer  can  say 
that  he  does  not  stand  in  the  way  of  sinners,  and  sit  in 
the  seat  of  the  scornful. 

To  the  shame  of  the  modern  apologists  for  the  stage, 
the  testimonies  to  its  corrupting  influences  are  coeval 
with  its  existence  as  found  in  Plato,  Xenophon,  Tacitus, 
Seneca,  and  many  others.  Ovid,  himself,  not  the  best 
example  of  heathen  morality,  urged  the  Emperor 
Augustus  to  suppress  it,  as  a  great  source  of  corruption 
to  the  State. 

Added  to  this,  we  have,  as  might  have  been  expected, 
an  unbroken  line  of  testimony  against  it  from  the  pro- 
fessed teachers  of  morals  and  religion,  in  the  shape  of 
protests,  censures,  recorded  judgments  and  condemna- 
tory sentences  of  the  Church,  in  not  less  than  fifty-four 
Councils  and  Synods,  general  and  provincial,  both  of 
the  East  and  West,  with  numerous  decrees  excluding 
play-actors   and   their  patrons  from  the  communion. 
The   opinions  of  the   ancient   Fathers   and   Christian 
writers,  to  the  number  of  seventy  or  more,  have  been 
collected  out  of  their  works :  and  of  modern  authors, 
both  Eoman  Catholic  and  Protestant,  not  less  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  have  condemned  the  theater,  as  of 
dangerous  and  often  fatal  influence  upon  society.     And 
these  authorities  are  by  no  means  confined  to  the  public 
teachers  of  religion,  but  embrace  writers  upon  morals, 
philosophers,   poets,  jurists,   physicians,   lawyers   and 
legislators.    Their  testimonies  and  opinions  would  make 


i 


Ui 


Y 


THE  theater;  7 

a  book.  Even  the  infidel  Eosseau  wondered  how  a 
father  could  take  his  daughter  to  the  theaters  of  Paris, 
which  were  so  congenial  to  vice  that  during  the  Eeign 
of  Terror  they  increased  from  six  to  twenty-five. 

On  the  12th  of  October,  1778,  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  adopted  the  following  resolution : — 

"Whereas,  true  religion  and  good  morals  are  the 
only  foundation  of  liberty  and  happiness, 

"  Eesolved,  That  it  be  and  is  hereby  recommended  to 
the  several  States,  to  take  the  most  efiectual  measures 
for  the  encouragement  thereof,  and  for  suppressing 
theatrical  entertainments,  horse  racing,  gaming,  and 
such  other  diversions  as  are  productive  of  idleness, 
dissipation  and  a  general  depravity  of  morals."  There 
were  but  eighteen  dissenting  votes,  while  those  in  the 
affirmative  numbered  the  most  illustrious  names  of  the 
House — Adams,  Gerry,  Sherman,  Ellsworth,  Eobert 
Morris,  Dean,  Eichard  Henry  Lee  and  Henry  Laurens. 
We  have  also  the  testimony  of  merchants  and  leading 
men  in  the  business  community,  concerning  numbers  of 
young  men  once  in  their  employment,  and  who  promised 
to  be  their  successors,  who  have  been  brought  to  dis- 
grace and  ruin  by  the  theater.  So  far,  then,  as  the  past 
is  concerned,  nobody  denies  it,  and  nobody  defends  it. 

But  we  are  told,  ^'The  stage  is  reformed,  become  a 
school  of  noble  sentiments,  and  a  teacher  of  morals," 
etc. — the  common  subterfuge  of  its  apologists  from  the 
beginning,  who,  unable  to  discredit  history,  have  found 
it  easier  to  contradict  what  has  not  yet  become  em- 
bodied in  that  form.  It  was  this  very  plea  which 
Bishop  Collier  encountered  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  when  he  wrote  his  famoas  history 


1 

I 


8 


THE  THEATER. 


of  the  stage.     None  justified  what  hxid  heen,  but  only 
what  was  then  alleged  to  be  an  improved   state  of 
things,  and  with  which  divines  were  presumed  not  to 
be  acquainted.     The  former  panderings  to  evil  passions 
had  ceased.    But  Collier  was  not  a  man  to  be  silenced 
either  by  plausible  fictions  or  by  positiveness.    He  pro- 
ceeded to  collect  the  facts,  undeniable  and  undenied,  in 
proof  that  in  1710  the  English  stage  was  more  corrupt 
than  in  any  former  period  of  its  history.     That  history 
was  for  the  most  part  unknown  to  its  apologists  and 
defenders,  and  they  had  little  sensibility  to  current 
facts,  so  long  as  those  facts  were  unknown  or  uncen- 
sured  by  the  moral  world  without  the  precincts  of  the 
theater.   So  of  the  late  assaults  of  the  secular  press  upon 
a  minister  for  refusing  to  bury  an  actor,  dying,  so  far 
as  appeared,  unbaptized  and  impenitent,  according  to 
the  burial  service  of  the  Episcopal  Church.     It  usually 
prefaces  its  attacks  with  .assertions  about  a  reformed 
theater.     We  have  a  short  answer  ready  at  hand  in 
the  counter  assertions  so  often  made  and  accompanied 
by  the  jproofs  of  their  truth,  many  of  them  unfit  for 
recital  in  this  address,  giving  the  names  of  those  plays 
and  performances  which  attract  the  greatest  crowds, 
not  only  in  Paris  and  London,  but  in  (mr  own  cities. 
We  are  told  of  the  abolished  third  tier,  but  what  is  the 
gain  to  virtue  from  having  its  former  occupants  scat- 
tered among  the  boxes?    It  is  idle  to  tell  us  of  the 
elevated  sentiments  of  the  drama,  perhaps  in  the  Age  of 
Elizabeth  or  James  I,  when  none  will  pretend  that  any- 
thing of  this  sort  now  attracts  the  multitude.     Those 
who  have  looked  most  into  the  literature  and  facts  of 
play-acting,  ancient  and  modern,  tell  us  that  the  inde- 


THE  THEATER. 


9 


y^  T 


cencies  of  the  present  would  not  have  been  tolerated  in 
the  corrupt  age  of  Charles  II,  and  that  the  immorahty 
of  the  stage  is  more  gross  now  than  when  Collier  wrote 
his  history.  Added  to  this,  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, the  judgment  of  the  world,  as  represented  by 
the  secular  press,  is  proportionally  demoralized. 

Christians  must  beware  of  the  thoroughly  worldly 
spirit^  of  the  secular  press.     With  no  higher  standard 
than  It  mculcates,  religion  would  soon  be  driven  out  of 
the  world.     Through  this  channel  it  will  not  be  known 
that  no  sooner  is  a  theater  built  than  it  is  surrounded 
with  drinking-houses  and  brothels,  which  mark  it  as  the 
way  te  perdition;  that  the  profession  of  the  stage  is 
notoriously  immoral.     Actors  and  actresses  who  come 
before  the  public  and  receive  their  applause,  are  living 
in  daily  defiance  of  the  laws  of  decency  and  morality. 
The  exceptions  to  this  rule  are  so  rare  that  they  ex- 
cite general  surprise  and  comment.     Christians  must 
have  better  sources  of  information  upon  these  subjecte 
than  the  secular  press. 

If  actors  and  actresses  are  excluded  from  the  society 
of  some  of  their  patrons  on  account  of  their  profession, 
let  it  be  remembered  that  both  are  upon  the  same  r^oral 
level  before  God.  That  which  it  is  immoral  or  shame- 
ful in  one  party  te  do,  is  immoral  and  shameful  in  any 
party  te  go  and  see  done. 

But  many  professed  Christians  think  it  vulgar  te  go 
to  a  theater,  yet  they  can  attend  the  opera. 

The  vice  of  the  opera  may  be  more  subtle  and  diffi- 
cult of  apprehension,  but  it  is  not  the  less  destructive 
on  that  account.  The  following  is  the  testimony  of  one 
than  whom  none  ever  better  knew  what  the  opera  is, 


^  - 


10 


THE  THEATER. 


THE  THEATER. 


or  what  is  its  effect  upon  character :  "  It  is  the  most 
artificial  of  all  things.  It  subsists,  not  in  the  imitation 
of  nature,  but  in  contempt  of  nature.  At  a  theater  you 
may  see  or  hear  what  has  possibly  been  said  or  done 
somewhere,  but  in  an  opera  you  are  sure  to  see  what 
was  never  said  or  done  anywhere  but  in  an  opera.  The 
ear  is  cloyed  with  warbled  ecstacies  or  agonies,  while 
every  avenue  to  painful  fear  or  effective  sympathy  is 
stopped  up.  Everything  must  be  made  to  excite  and 
soothe  the  feelings  of  the  nurselings  of  fortune.  Tor- 
tured victims  swoon  on  bods  of  roses,  and  the  pangs  of 
despair  sink  in  tremulous  accents  into  downy  repose. 
Just  so  much  of  human  misery  is  given  as  to  lull  those 
who  are  exempt  from  it  into  a  more  luxurious  sense  of 
their  own  happiness.  Its  whole  effect  is  to  stifle  every 
proper  emotion,  and  intercept  every  right  ieeling  before 
it  reaches  the  heart,  so  that  there  is  hardly  a  vice  to 
which  it  does  not  smooth  the  way,  or  a  single  virtue  of 
which  it  renders  the  soft  and  pampered  hearer  entirely 

capable." 

It  is  little  to  say  that  the  religion  of  the  cross  of 
Christ  cannpt  flourish  in  an  atmosphere  like  this — it 

cannot  live  at  all. 

Touching  the  judgment  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  there  is  no  dispute.  We  have  it  in  resolutions 
of  the  General  Convention,  and  in  this  diocese  a  special 
canon  provides  for  the  discipline  of  those  who  fall  into 
this  sin.  In  this  view  of  the  case  the  Church  has  a 
right  to  expect  at  the  hands  of  its  ministers  the  exer- 
cise of  its  discipline.  And  it  is  in  the  city  churches 
that  judgment  must  begin.  It  is  in  these  churches 
that  the  patronage  of  the  theater  is  common;  in  some 


y 


s 


? 


T 


11 


it  is  less  common,  from  the  generally  higher  standard  of 
piety,  but  in  nonCj  so  far  as  we  are  informed,  does  it 
incur  suspension  from  the  communion.  The  members 
of  country  churches  visiting  cities  in  winter  soon  learn 
this,  and  enticed  by  the  example  of  city  communicants, 
fall  into  their  sin.  These,  in  turn,  going  into  the  coun- 
try parishes  in  summer,  have  been  the  chief  instru- 
ments of  leading  the  young  communicants  of  those 
parishes  into  sinful  compliances  with  the  world,  quoting 
their  own  pastors  against  those  of  the  parishes  in  which 
they  were  guests. 

What  shall  we  say  of  such  tolerated  conformity  to 
the  habits  of  those  who  are  "living  in  pleasure"? 
Can  that  Church  be  a  spiritual  society  in  which  disci- 
pline takes  notice  of  nothing  short  of  that  which  sub- 
jects the  offender  to  a  civil  prosecution?  We  are 
ashamed  and  confounded  at  witnessing  quarrels  and 
censures  about  the  violation  of  "ordination  vows"  in 
mere  matters  of  rubrical  direction,  or  the  prerogatives 
of  the  clergy,  while  the  promise  "to  minister  the  dis- 
cipline of  Christ  as  this  Church  hath  received  the 
same,"  seems  to  be  entirely  forgotten — "tithing  mint, 
anise  and  cummin,  while  passing  over  judgment  and  the 
love  of  God." 

There  is  but  one  way  of  safety  for  any  of  us,  and 
that  is  by  preaching  in  love,  with  all  courage  and  per- 
severance, the  whole  truth;  with  specific  statements, 
after  the  manner  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  of  the  sins 
which  we  preach  against.  This  will  convert  some,  in- 
duce others  to  withdraw,  leaving  the  cases  for  final  dis- 
cipline so  few  as  to  render  its-  exercise  comparatively 
easy. 


II. 


ON  THE  CHRISTIAN  PATRONAGE 

OF  DANCING. 


Though  the  moral  evils  of  dancing,  in  some  of  its 
forms,  be  not  so  great  as  those  which  result  from 
theater  going,  the  unlearned  reader  will  be  surprised 
to  find  that  the  moral  warfare  against  this  also  dates 
back  from  before  the  Christian  era.  Suffer  us,  there- 
fore, to  call  your  attention  to 

1.  The  argument  from  authority.  The  earlier  Greek 
and  Eoman  moralists  classified  dancing  with  play-act- 
ing, as  in  this  Address,  and  condemned  both  on  substan- 
tially the  same  grounds.  Plato,  Aristotle,  Livy  and 
Cicero  are  quoted  as  its  censors.  They  held  it  as  not 
only  productive  of  moral  evils,  but  as  indicating  a  low 
grade  of  character.  When  Cato  charged  Murena,  the 
Boman  Consul,  with  having  danced  in  Capadocia,  Cicero 
considered  the  charge  so  disgraceful  to  his  client,  that 
had  he  been  unable  to  disprove  it,  he  would  have 
abandoned  his  cause.    "Blush  then,"   said  Cardinal 

(12) 


ON  THE   CHRISTIAN  PATRONAGE  OF   DANCING.      13 

Beliarmine  to  the  Christian  apologists  for  dancing, 
*'when  a  pagan  has  thought  more  sanely  on  this  sub- 
ject than  you,  and  lest  that  pagan  condemn  you  in  the 
judgment  day."  In  the  civil  code  of  Theodosius  it  \& 
subjected  to  censure  by  the  State;  as  also  by  Council 
after  Council  of  the  Christian  Church,  by  whose  deci- 
sions dancers  as  well  as  play-actors  were  excluded  from 
the  communion.  Basil,  Ambrose,  Augustine,  with  the 
fathers  and  doctors  of  the  Early  Church  so  far  as  known, 
were  of  the  same  mind  about  this  practice. 

St.  Chrysostom  entreated  his  hearers  "not  to  dis- 
qualify themselves  for  the  communion  by  such  mortal 
diversions."    Tertullian  said  that  "if  Christians  were 
found  in  the  assemblies  of  the  dancers,  it  proved  them 
to  be  no  longer  true  Christians."   The  Church  of  Kome, 
by  no  means  remarkable  for  severity  in  matters  of 
worldly  amusement,  has  produced  a  host  of  witnesses 
against  dancing,  derived  from  its  history  in  all  forms, 
no  regard  being  paid  to  its  being  more  or  less  public, 
as  there  is  no  distinction  in  principle.     The  authorities 
may  be  seen  at  length  in  the  work  of  the  Abb^  Hulot, 
entitled  "Balls  and  dancing  parties   condemned  by 
Scripture,  Holy  Fathers,  Holy  Councils  and  most  re- 
nowned theologians  of  the  Church."     The  drift  of  that 
work  is  to  show  that  while  some  of  its  forms  are  enough 
to  rouse  evil  passions  in  an  anchorite,  all  of  them  are 
corrupting  to  the  lower  classes  of  society;  while  in 
every  class  and  with  all  their  participants,  whoever 
they  may  be,  they  are  more  or  less  unfriendly  to  that 
command  of  God,   the  violation  of  which  goes  more 
directly  than  any  other  to  the  very  heart  of  social  life. 


V        ^1 


14      ON   THE   CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE   OF   DANCING. 

And  when  we  see  that  Church  from  which  we  once 
separated,  as  well  for  'Wiciousness  of  life"  as  for  ''error 
in  religion,"  not  only  censuring  the  licentious  dance  in 
synods'^  but  effectually  extruding  it  by  discipline,  we 
*are  filled  with  profound  mortification  at  seeing  it  pass 
without  notice  in  Churches  called  evangelical.  Are  the 
Protestant  Churches  falling  in  the  rear  of  Eomanists 
in  consistency  of  the  Christian  life?  The  distinguished 
infidel  Bayle  once  said  of  them—"  The  Eeformed 
Churches  which  forbid  dancing  cannot  be  sufficiently 
praised  for  it,  since  the  manner  of  it  creates  a  thousand 
impressions  dangerous  to  virtue." 

But  there  is,  in  fact,  a  like  consensus  of  judgment 
among  all  Protestant  writers  who  have  treated  of 
''pomps  and  vanities;"  and  rules  for  the  most  part 
have  been  adopted  adequate  to  their  repression.  In 
this  diocese,  the  XIX  Canon  specifies  not  only  attend- 
ance  upon  "theatrical  exhibitions,"  but  "public  balls," 
as  offenses  for  which  those  guilty  of  them  should  be 
suspended  from  the  communion.  The  responsibility 
now  rests  on  those  who  do  not  enforce  the  rules  made 

and  provided. 

But  what  are  ''pullic  Balls?"  The  Church  has 
given  no  definition,  nor  has  it  defined  "pomps  and 
vanities."  In  rubrics  and  offices  which  continue  un- 
changed for  centuries,  the  terms  are  general,  and  for 
this  reason— to  have  made  them  specific  by  enumerar 
ting  the  particulars  of  those  current  at  any  one  time, 
necessarily  leaving  new  developments  unprovided  for, 
would  have  opened  the  way  for  the  advocates  of  license 
to  claim  that  rule  of  interpretation  which  holds  in  the 


f 


O 


i' 


1\ 


Oi(  T^E   CHRISTIAN  PATRONAGE  OP  DANCING.      15. 

civil  law,  that  whatsoever  is  not  prohibited  is  allowed. 
The  work  of  applying  general  principles  to  the  correc- 
tion of  current  forms  of  sin  belongs  to  the  legislation 
and  discipline  of  the  Church  for  the  time  being. 

In  the  Bible  we  find  first  general  laws,  as  in  the 
decalogue,  and  in  such  forms  as  the  following: — Be  ye 
holy.    Let  him  that  nameth  the  name  of  Christ  depart 
from  iniquity.     Abstain  from  all  appearance  of  evil, 
hating  even  the  garments  spotted  by  the  flesh;  and  we 
find  also  some  specifications,  doubtless  the  chief  of  the 
Vanities  incompatible  with  the  Christian  profession  then 
current,  even  to  those  of  the  fashions  of  female  dress 
and  of  wearing  the  hair  by  the  worldly  and  frivolous 
of  that  day.     (See  1  Tim.  ii,  13).     It  is  so  in  the  legis- 
lation of  the  Church.     We  have  general  laws,  and  we 
have  some  specifications.   These  are  added  to  or  altered 
from  time  to  time,  as  circumstances  may  require.     It 
would  be  vain  to  search  the  Scriptures  for  a  prohibition 
<)f  the  pomps  and  vanities  of  the  present  day,  such  as 
liave  been   prohibited  either   by   resolutions    of   the 
General  Convention  or  by  Diocesan  Canons,  for  they 
did  not  exist  when  the  Bible  was  written.     Theatrical 
exhibitions  were  unknown  in  Judea  until  introduced  by 
Herod,  that  illustrious  wretch  who  sought  the  life  of 
the  infant  Saviour,  and  then  it  was  against  the  protests 
of  the  native  population,  who  could  never  be  reconciled 
to  them,  much  less  were  they  named  among  them  as 
becoming  saints. 

No  rubric  or  canon  can  include  every  form  of  vanity 
for  which  discipline  should  be  exercised,  as  this  par- 
ticular canon  declares  concerning  itself,  that  it  shall 


.X       ^ 


16      ON  THE  CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE  OP   DANCING. 

not  be  so  considered.  TKere  are  those  now  in  the 
Church,  as  there  always  have  been,  who  in  worldly 
conformity  will  go  to  the  utmost  limit  of  the  law.* 
Tertullian  speaks  of  these  same  troublers  of  Israel  in 
his  day,  who  were  always  hanging  upon  the  borders  of 
discipline,  and  must  needs  have  a  sjpediic  text  for  every 
vanity  they  were  called  upon  to  surrender.  Conse- 
quently, now,  as  in  the  first  Christian  Societies,  and  as 
it  always  must  be,  questions  arise  which  in  their  de- 
tails must  be  decided  by  those  entrusted  with  the  disci- 
pline of  the  local  churches  for  the  time  being,  of  course 
under  general  laws,  the  subjects  of  discipline  mean- 
while being  entitled  to  appeal. 

When  the  question  is  asked  what  are  "public  Balls,** 
we  answer,  without  regarding  those  refinements  which 
are  unworthy  of  a  Christian,  they  are  all  those  assem- 
blages and  parties  where  promiscuous  dancing  is  carried 
on  by  the  two  sexes,  and  not  less  for  being  in  a  private 
house.  This  is  the  view  taken  in  the  Eeport  of  the 
Committee  on  the  state  of  the  Church  in  the  Council  of 
1866,  which  was  directed,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  to  bo 
read  in  all  the  Churches  of  the  Diocese. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  argument  from  authority,  which 
certainly  must  have  some  weight  with  such  as  "  lean 
not  to  their  own  understanding."  But  had  it  even  been 
otherwise,  and  councils  and  doctors  have  been  divided 


•  It  Is  related  of  a  Prince,  that  wishing  to  employ  a  charioteer,  ho 
examined  the  applicants  by  asking  how  near  they  could  drive  to  the 
edge  of  a  precipice  without  going  over.  The  first  said  within  so  many 
Inches.  The  second  could  go  still  nearer.  The  third  said  he  did  not 
know,  as  he  always  made  it  a  point  to  keep  away  from,  such  places. 
Tke  choice  between  such  was  easily  made. 


^ 


ON  THE  CHRISTIAN  PATRONAGE  OF  DANCING,     17 

or  adverse  in  judgment,  still  the  moral  argument  would 
be  held  as  conclusive. 

We  have  then  to  consider 

2.  The  moral  argument.  By  the  moral  argument, 
we  mean  that  which  is  drawn  from  the  nature  of  the 
case,  without  regard  to  laws,  or  promises  to  obey  them. 
And  here  we  take  dancing  not  in  some  supposable  or 
occasional  circumstances;  but  with  its  actual  history, 
its  ordinary  associations  and  its  known  tendencies.  We 
compare  this  with  the  picture  drawn  in  Scripture  of  the 
Christian  life,  and  in  this  view  appeal  to  conscience 
when  in  its  tenderest  and  best  state.  What  are  its  own 
decisions?  What  the  real  promptings  of  a  regenerate 
mind?  What  the  decision  of  those  in  closest  sympathy 
with  the  life  of  Christ?  This  is  the  decision  which  we 
desire,  as  most  decisive  of  the  moral  argument  and  of 
the  practical  question.  For  so  long  as  rubrics  and 
canons  for  the  exclusion  of  pomps  and  vanities  from  the 
Church  are  looked  upon  simply  as  coercive;  or  like 
positive  institutions,  the  reasons  for  which  are  not  seen 
or  felt  to  be  xnoral,  intrinsic  and  necessary,  just  so  long 
will  they  encounter  a  disputatious  and  resistive  spirit. 
But  however  numerous  or  conclusive  such  reasons  may 
be  to  a  spiritual  mind,  it  is  antecedently  probable  that 
in  the  present  state  of  the  Church  they  will  not  be 
appreciated  by  all  its  members.  Otherwise  laws  were 
unnecessary,  since  they  are  not  made  for  the  righteous, 
but  for  those  in  whom  is  the  spirit  of  transgression,  and 
concerning  whom  it  may  be  counted  upon  beforehand, 
that  the  restraints  of  law  will  be  distasteful,  and  if  poa- 
aible,  set  aside. 


IS      ON  THE  CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE  OF   DANCING, 

When,  therefore,  rules  are  cited  and  applied  to  world- 
Imess  in  its  less  palpable  forms,  we  constantly  encounter 
this  reply,  "I  cannot  see  any  harm  in  it."  Wo  show 
them  in  the  plainest  manner  the  evil  effect  of  this 
worldliness,  both  upon  themselves  and  upon  the  Church; 
but  they  see  as  little  as  before,  and  go  on  repeating,' 
"I  cannot  see  any  harm  in  it;  show  me  what  harm 
there  can  be  in  a  dancing  party,  or  in  playing  cards,  if 
we  don't  gamble;  and  would  not  this  be  better  than 
slandering  one's  neighbors,"  etc.,  etc. 

When,  after  a  full  and  clear  statement  of  the  case, 
with  time  for  reflection,  the  objector  still  continues  in 
the  same  strain,  we  have  only  to  say  that  we  withdraw 
from  the  controversy,  aU  hope  of  success  being  at 
an  end.    There  is  no  basis  for  conviction.    Submit  a 
problem  in  the  ^gher  mathematics  to  one  unacquainted 
with  that  science,  and  it  is  quite  unintelligible  to  him 
He  asks  an  explanation ;  but  in  order  to  do  this,  you 
must  employ  terras  of  which  he  docs  not  know  the 
meaning.     Your  explanation  is  as    obscure   as    the 
original  proposition.    You  must  begin  with  him  at  the 
very  rudiments  of  the  science,  for  which  he  may  or 
may  not  have  the  disposition. 

So  in  our  religious  instructions  we  constantly  meet 
with  those  who  have  no  definite  ideas  respecting  the 
pomps  and  vanities  renounced  at  their  baptism,  and  to 
whom  It  seems  impossible  to  impart  any.  To  such  we 
.  must  tail  in  aU  endeavors  to  show  them  the  "harm"  in 
ttoe  thmgs.  We  cannot  impart  to  them  a  spiritual 
understanding;  or  cause  them  to  discern  sin,  except  in 
Its  grosser  forms,  which  the  world  itself  condemns;    It 


> 


ON   THE    CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE  OF   DANCING.      19 

is  80  with  respect  to  many  Christian  judgments  and 
duties;  e.  g,  our  Lord  says  "it  is  better  to  give  than  to 
receive,"  and  every  child  of  God  accepts  it  as  a  truth. 
But  one  replies  ''  I  do  not  think  so,  my  experience  tells 
me  that  it  is  better  to  receive  than  to  give,"  and  we 
have  no  more  to  say.  So  we  see  morbid  symptoms  in 
the  body,  which  it  is  useless  to  treat  directly.  They 
come  from  an  unsound  constitution.  Let  this  be  reno- 
vated, and  those  symptoms  will  disappear  without  any 
treatment  at  all. 

Do  we  then  set  down  as  unconverted  all  who  are 
unable  to  "see  the  harm"  of  these  things,  and  regard 
the  inability  as  itself  the  proof  that  they  are  destitute 
of  spiritual  discernment? 

The  question  of  another's  being  in  a  state  of  salva- 
tion is  a  question  which  one  hesitates  to  decide  under 
any  circumstances,  even  in  his  own  thoughts,  even 
where  appearances  are  most  discouraging.  Charity 
hopes,  or  replies,  "the  Lord  knoweth."  But  so  far  as 
we  do  form  a  judgment,  it  must  be  in  accordance  with 
our  Saviour's  rule,  "6y  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them; 
do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles  T 
taking  as  an  aid  to  judge  of  these  fruits,  the- general 
'  voice  of  the  Clmrch  in  past  ages.  In  this  view  we  have 
to  say  of  those  within  the  scope  of  our  observation,  who 
after  due  endeavors  for  their  conviction  have  still  pro- 
fessed their  inability  to  "see  any  harm"  in  these  and 
such  like  things,  and  have  continued  to  be  the  defenders 
of  dancing,  whether  they  practiced  it  or  not,  that  in  no 
instance  have  they  been  persons  wlio,  on  other  grounds, 
and  apart  from  this  particular  question,  have  giveu» 


«.»iJ^1L  I    •rJyrirrnM.m.nn 


20     ON  THE   CHRISTIAN  PATRONAGE  OF  DANCING. 

satisfactory  evidence  of  being  born  of  the  Spirit  (Gal. 
V,  22),  or  whom  we  should  have  thought  of  with  com- 
fort in  the  day  of  their  death.  To  give  less  than  our 
real  convictions  upon  such  a  subject,  derived  as  they 
have  been  from  observation  and  the  Word  of  God, 
would  be  to  deal  unfaithfully  with  those  whom  we  thus 
address,  those  who,  as  the  Apostle  says,  "are  dear  to 
us,"  and  for  whom  we  shall  be  held  in  some  sort  re- 
sponsible at  the  final  day. 

But,  inasmuch  as  some  have  been  convinced  by  the 
moral  argument,  our  hope  is  that  by  its  repetition  we 
may  convince  more. 

(1.)  The  most  plausible  plea  for  dancing  which  we 
have  seen  (and  it  comes  from  one  of  whom,  as  of  some 
of  the  late  apologists  for  the  theater,  the  Church  had  a 
right  to  expect  better  things),  and  for  such  like  things, 
was  founded  upon  this  proposition,  "Play  is  as  natural 
as  work,"  from  which  it  was  argued  that  "people  must 
have  amusements,  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
Church  to  supply  its  members  with  amusements,"  in 
which  the  rule  is  moderation,  not  prohibition.     But 
this  rule  of  moderation  manifestly  appHes  only  to  things 
lawful,  whereas  the  question  about  dancing  is  whether 
it  be  lawful  for  a  Christian,  all  things  considered.- 
Touching  this  alleged  or  admitted  necessity  for  amuse- 
ments, there  are  surely  resources  enough  to  occupy  all 
the  leisure  which  a  Christian  should  have  in  a  world 
like  this,  from  the  more  serious  pursuits  of  life ;  things 
which  are  healthful  and  properly  enough  called  amuse- 
ments in  art,  lectures,  lyceums,  music,  painting,  poetry, 
■the  social  converse,  the  culture  of  fruita  and  flowers, 


h 


OS  THE  CHRISTIAN  PATRONAGE  OP  DANCING.      21 

riding  and  walking,  with  thoughts  which  are  every- 
where suggested  by  the  works  of  God  in  nature.  The 
range,  including  sports  for  children,  all  of  which  come 
within  the  bounds  of  unquestioned  propriety,  is  end- 
lees. 

But  if  by  amusements  be  meant  such  "  popular  amuse- 
ments" as  are  now  under  consideration,  or  which  have 
at  any  time  incurred  the  censure  of  the  Church,  we  are 
at  a  loss  to  know  by  what  authority  of  Scripture, 
either  in  its  text  or  its  spirit,  this  proposition  that 
Christians  must  have  amusements,  can  be  sustained. 
On  the  contrary  we  know  that  it  cannot  be  sustained. 
St.  James'  prescription  for  those  who  are  "merry"  and 
seek  some  suitable  expression  for  their  feelings,  would 
probably  be  received  with  ridicule  by  those  Christians 
who  demand  this  liberty  of  dancing. 

We  are  almost  constantly  asked  by  the  advocates  for 
this  practice  whether  it  be  "wrong  in  itself"  or  "wrong 
in  the  abstract."  If  those  magic  words  "in  itseK," 
which  appear  to  puzzle  only  those  who  use  them,  refer 
only  to  the  bodily  movement,  the  question  is  childish, 
and  if  by  "abstract"  be  meant  abstraction  from  its 
antecedents,  accompaniments,  and  consequences,  it  is 
almost  equally  childish,  for  it  does  not  exist  in  that 
shape.  There  is  no  such  dancing.  You  never  see  a 
person  go  into  a  private  room,  alone,  and  there  dance 
by  himself,  which  is  the  most  reasonable  conception  we 
can  form  of  "dancing,  in  the  abstract." 

Then  again,  this  general  proposition  that  "people 
must  have  amusements,"  makes  no  distinction  in  kind, 
but  only  in  degree,  between  the  joys  of  the  children  of 


22      ON  THE   CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE   OP  DANCING-^ 

God  and  the  children  of  this  world;  nor  does  it  give 
any  higher  standard  of  indulgence  than  worldly  pru- 
dence, which  condemns  only  that  which  ''Society/'  at 
any  one  time  or  place  has  agreed  to  denominate  excess; 
whereas  Almighty  God  declares  that  his  people  "are  a 
peculiar  people."  They  are  peculiar  in  their  princi- 
ples, peculiar  in  their  conduct,  peculiar  in  their  amuse- 
ments, if  so  called;  they  are  peculiar  in  their  joys  and  in 
their  sorrows,  peculiar  in  their  deaths,  and  (according 
to  the  intention  of  the  Church)  in  their  burials,  as  they 
will  be  in  their  resurrection,  their  award  at  the  judg- 
ment day,  and  their  eternal  state. 

(2.)  We  encounter  another  class  of  apologies,  such  as 
the  ''need  of  exercise."  Did  any  one  ever  say  that 
this  was  his  own  real  motive  for  dancing?  *'To  over- 
come diffidence  in  Society."  Alas  I  we  fear  that  this 
has  been  too  much  overcome  already.  Will  Christians 
be  referred  in  vain  to  what  the  Apostle  says  about 
"shamefacedness,"  not  perhaps  now  the  best  translation 
of  the  original  word;  but  the  idea  is  obvious  enough, 
and  quite  the  opposite  of  that  which  the  dance  is  com- 
mended to  cultivate.  "  Giving  ease  and  grace  of  car- 
riage and  manner."  This  is  another  plea  in  the  same 
class,  also  frivolous  and  without  any  foundation  in  fact 
or  experience.  It  does  not  require  a  serious  refutation. 
Another,  of  a  little  more  weight,  is,  that  when  asked  to 
join  others  in  this  amusement  at  a  party,  especially 
when  pressed  to  do  so  by  the  host,  it  seems  discourteous 
to  decline.  A  considerate  Christian  will  be  apt  to  know 
beforehand  of  what  character  any  proposed  party  is 
likely  to  be,  and  accordingly  know  whether  to  accept  or 


f  .V 


•ON  THE   CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE   OF  DANCING. 


23 


ll 


\\. 


\ 


n  . 


decline  the  invitation  to  be  there  at  all.  But  when 
members  of  the  Church,  whose  principles  touching 
pomps  and  vanities  should  be  known  to  the  communi- 
ties before  whom  they  have  publicly  promised  to  re- 
nounce them,  and  known  by  something  more  than  pro- 
fession, when  such  are  invited  to  parties,  so  far  from 
being  chargeable  with  rudeness  to  the  host  by  decli- 
ning his  invitation  to  dance,  he  himself  is  guilty  not  only 
of  discourtesy  to  his  Christian  guests,  but  of  violating 
the  rights  of  hospitality  by  even  permitting  that  which 
so  many  Christians  are  known  to  have  conscientious 
scruples  against  countenancing  even  by  their  presence. 

The  above  statement  of  the  case,  as  we  have  reason 
to  know,  has  proved  quite  sufficient  for  some,  and  we 
doubt  not  will  be  so  to  others;  though,  as  was  to  be  ex- 
pected, those  farthest  from  the  truth  are  hardest  to  be 
won.  But  shall  we  abandon  those  who  in  the  midst 
of  light  continue  in  darkness?  Are  we  exonerated  from 
preaching  because  few  sinners  are  converted  by  the 
best  sermons?  No.  And  as  to  such  as  we  cannot 
reach  by  the  living  voice  of  instruction  and  remon- 
strance, we  would  place  the  truth  before  them  upon  the 
printed  page  in  the  most  forcible  manner,  and  despair 
of  none  so  long  as  they  will  read. 

Moral  suasion  is  indeed  the  main  instrument  for 
maintaining  the  purity  of  the  Church,  but  it  is  not  and 
never  has  been  the  sole  instrument.  When  persuasion 
fails,  resort  must  be  had  to  warning,  judicial  admoni- 
tion, suspension  from  the  communion,  excommunication. 
And  where  is  this  process  of  warning  to  begin?     Evi- 


ii 


24      ON  THE   CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE  OF   DANCINa. 

dently  witli  those  in  the  highest  office  of  the  Church; 
else  what  are  they  there  for?  * 

But  our  Bishops  have  faithfully  discharged  their 
duty  herein,  both  in  Council  and  from  Church  to 
Church.  In  his  address  to  the  Council  of  1872,  Bishop 
Johns  says,  "the  most  oflfensive  inconsistencies  speci- 
fied consist  in  indulging  in  that  lascivious  mode  of 
promiscuous  dancing  called  the  round  dance,  a  demo- 
ralizing dissipation,  disgusting  to  the  delicacy  of  a  re- 
fined taste,  and  shocking  to  the  sensibilities  of  the 
renewed  mind.  This  scandal  is  not  to  be  tolerated  in 
the  Church  of  Christ." 

If  all  other  expedients  fail,  he  adds,  "  decided  disci- 
pline must  be  exercised."  To  this  the  Council  re- 
sponded by  an  affirmative  resolution  declaring  it  the 
duty  of  "ministers  faithfully  to  execute  the  canons 
bearing  upon  the  subject,  and  to  discountenance  and 
restrain'  the  practice  alluded  to. 

But  are  Christians  only  to  cease  from  that  which  the 
world  itself — ^more  candid  by  condemning  what  it  prao- 
tices — declares  to  be  of  such  brazen  immodesty  as  to 
scorn  all  Christian  profession  ?  Have  they  no  percep- 
tion of  the  connection  between  the  less  exciting  and 
the  more  exciting  forms  of  this  vice  ?  Do  they  not  see 
how  generally  the  one  has  now  come  to  resolve  itself 
into  the  other;  or  the  worthlessness  of  the  distinction 


•  In  this  connection  we  gratefully  acknowledge  our  indebtedness  to 
Dr.  Coxe,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Western  New  York,  for  his  out- 
spoken and  timely  admonitions  of  current  abuses  in  the  Church 
touching  doctrine,  discipline  and  worship.  It  is  by  such  fidelity,  re- 
gardless of  the  currents  of  popular  opinion,  that  we  are  to  look  for  Um 
preservation  of  the  purity  of  the  Church. 


!♦ 


. 


K 


% 


ON   THE  CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE  OF   DANCING.      25 

in  principle  between  Ahab,  who  serves  Baal  a  little,  and 
Jehu,  who  serves  him  much  ? 

But  if  they  do  not,  and  if  upon  a  comparison  of 
the  teachings  of  Holy  Scripture  with  the  facts  in  the 
case  no  conviction  ensues,  and  no  incompatibility  is 
discovered  between  dancing  and  a  Christian  profession, 
and  no  cause  for  censure  when  those  who  practice  it 
are  admitted  to  the  communion,  then  we  have  no  more 
to  say. 

There  is  no  basis  or  acknowledged  principles  in  com- 
mon, on  which  to  conduct  such  argument.  Any  spiri- 
tual sensibility  will  give  warning  long  before  those  ex- 
cesses are  reached  which  are  incompatible  with  senti- 
ments of  virtue.  Where  the  new  hfe  in  Christ  is  want- 
ing, reformations  will  be  but  external  and  prudential, 
not  inward — in  form,  not  in  principle — ^submitted  to 
from  the  force  of  law,  or  pastoral  persuasion,  not  chosen 
through  the  work  of  the  Spirit — ^saving  some  scandal 
to  the  Church;  but  acting  from  the  will  of  man  and 
not  from  the  will  of  God,  his  blessing  will  not  rest  upon 
any  such  obedience. 

In  conversion,  the  soul  acquires  a  new  faculty  of 
judgment,  which  detects  the  errors  of  education,  many 
of  them  instantly,  as  we  see  in  persons  converted  from 
heathenism,  which  masters  the  prejudices  of  a  lifetime, 
and  sets  itself  against  public  opinion,  and  reverses  the 
decisions  of  society  quite  in  advance  of  sermons,  argu- 
ments or  books,  for  love  runs  before  reason. 

Still  we  do  not  forget  that  the  divine  life  which 
supervenes  upon  conversion,  with  its  new  spiritual  per- 
ceptions, may  be  vigorous  or  weak,  that  it  is  subject  to 


,       26      ON   THE   CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE   OF   DANCING. 

cultivation,  to  revivals  and  decay,  and  theoretically  to 
extinction,  and  hence  our  labors  with  the  weak,  the 
uninstructed,  the  stubborn,  the  slow  of  heart  to  be- 
;  lieve.     In  this  work  we  might  repeat  the  arguments  of 
Bishops  Meade,  Mcllvaine  and  Hopkins,  and  what  has 
been  so  often  and  forcibly  said  by  other  writers  about 
the  dangers  to  health  from  exposure,  the  passing  from 
heated  rooms,  with  a  flushed  and  heated  person,  into  the 
cold  and  dampness  of  night,  and  the  consequent  ex- 
change of  the  ball  room  for  th.e  death  chamber,  the 
;   interruption  of  useful  studies  and  of  the  order  of  fami- 
lies, the  incitements  to  personal  vanity  and  display,  the 
restless  and  dissipated  habits  so  often  engendered  by 
this  amusement,  all  of  which  is  sound  and  conclusive. 
We  might  cite  numerous  incidental  facts,  which  are 
often  the  quickest  arguments  to  those  who  have  the 
quickness  to  perceive  their   application;    e,  g.^  How 
comes  it  that  the  very  name  of  a  "dance  house"  is  sug- 
gestive of  degradation?    How  comes  it  that  dancing 
masters,  like  play  actors,  could  never  gain  access  to  the 
best  society,  even  of  those  who  patronized  their  pro- 
fession?   How  comes  it  that  so  many  have  changed 
their  views  or  their  professions  upon  this  subject,  in 
circumstances  of  danger  or  of  sorrow  ?     What  is  the 
import  of  that  well  authenticated  case  of  the  mother 
who  "could  not  see  the  harm  of  dancing,"  "could  see 
no  force  in  the  objections  to  it,"  "wished  to  see  them 
if  she  could,"  encouraged  her  daughter  in  the  practice, 
attended  her  to  the  ball  to  enjoy  the  admiration  which 
she  would  win,  and  when  in  the  ardor  of  the  perform- 
ance the  daughter  was  struck  with  death,  begged  that 


^y 


T  r 


ON   THE    CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE   OF   DANCING.      27 

she  might  be  taken  out  of  the  ball  room  ?    As  life  was 
ebbing  fast,  she  became  more  urgent,  and  said  "If  my 
child  must  die,  for  God's  sake  do  not  let  her  die  in  the 
ball   room."     "Where    shall   we   take   her?"     "Any- 
where," she  said,  "but  here."     But  according  to  her 
former  professions  what  could  be  the  special  incongruity 
of  death  in  a  ball  room  ?     What  new  truth  had  reached 
her  mind?    Nay,  rather  what  had  been  her  better,  but 
suppressed  convictions  all  the  time  ?     Yes,  there  is  a 
secret  judgment  upon  this  subject,  contradicted  it  may 
be  in  words,  but  often  speaking  out  unbidden.     Some- 
times upon  the  bed  of  death,  sometimes  in  times  of 
general  awakening.    Under  such  circumstances  we  have 
heard  the  voluntary  confession  made  with  tears,  that 
under   instruction   conscience   had   testified  with   the 
preacher,  and  testified  to  the  insincere  excuses  for  their 
vanity  and  folly,  and  testified  against  the  places  of  its 
indulgence,  from  which,  by  common  consent,  religion 
must  be  excluded.     And  shall  old  converts  have  less 
sensibility  to  sin  than  new  ones  ? 

If,  then,  in  this  connection  it  can  be  asked  "what 
harm  is  there  in  children  s  dancing  and  in  Christian 
parents  sending  their  children  to  dancing  schools  ?  we 
answer,  if  you  admit  the  practice  to  be  of  unchristian . 
tendency  at  any  age,  you  settle  the  question.  Why 
foster  in  childhood  the  tastes  which  in  age  lead  so  many 
into  sin  ?  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  that  he  should 
gOy  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it. 

In  this,  as  in  other  parts  of  this  address,  we  have  a 
right  to  expect  of  our  Christian  brethren  that  they  will 
neither  represent  nor  understand  us  as  seeing  all  this 


i. 


n 


28      ON  THE   CHRISTIAN  PATRONAGE   OF  DANCING, 

evil  in  the  literal  dancing.  Would  that  this  were  sepa- 
rable (if  any  wish  it)  from  the  general  injuriousness  of 
its  occasions,  the  unspiritualizing  associations,  and 
generally  irreligious  atmosphere  of  the  places  of  its 
performance.  But  what  avails  it  to  separate  in  theory 
what  has  never  yet  been  separated  in  practice  ? 

In  connection  with  all  that  has  now  been  said,  we 
have  but  to  submit  a  single  fact,  and  with  this  conclude 
our  address.    If  it  be  as  stated,  it  must  be  conclusive 
of  the  moral  argument.    It  is  this.     In  the  lives  of  the 
saints  there  is  no  record  of  one,  man  or  woman,  who 
was  a  dancer.     And  by  saints  we  mean  all  those,  living 
or  dead,  who  have  illustrated  their  religion,  accredited 
it  to  the  world  as  true,  who  have  given  character  to 
the  Church,  and  made  it  a  power  against  the  world,  the 
flesh  and  the  devil.     We  appeal  to  history,  and  call 
upon  you  for  a  single  name  identified  with  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  gospel,  or  ever  called  in  connection  with  the 
advancement  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  who  was  a  dancer. 
We  appeal  to  your  own  observation.     You  never  knew 
such  an  one,  you  do  not  know  one  now  who  is  of  repu- 
tation for  a  devout  hfe.    A  few  indeed  have  been  found 
who  cite  exceptions  or  supposed  exceptions,  but  their 
opinion  is  not  sustained  by  such  facts  as  are  really  did- 
anguishing  of  true  religion,  or  by  the  opinions  of  tho^e 
most  capable  of  forming  a  true  judgment. 

And  now  in  all  this  are  you  unable  to  see  at  least  a 
probable  case  of  incompatibility,  and  so  determinative 
of  the  conduct  of  every  Christian?  And  have  you 
nothing  to  oppose  to  all  this  but  your  non-knowledge 
and  your  non-ability  "to  see/'  setting  yourself  against 


<♦ 


ON  THE  CHRISTIAN  PATRONAGE   OF  DANCING.      29 

history,  against  the  testimony  of  the  Church  in  all  ages, 
and  of  its  living  ministers  and  teachers,  supported  as 
they  are  by  such  a  host  of  illustrative  facts!     Where, 
we  must  ask  in  amazement,  where  is  at  least  humility! 
Has  it  utterly  failed  among  our  young  communicants, 
from  the  catalogue  of  Christian  graces  ?  Will  they  sepa- 
rate themselves  in  opinion  and  practice  from  the  com- 
pany of  the  faithful,  and  insist  upon  walking  close  up 
to  the  Hue  of  prohibition,  inducing  the  just  belief  that 
though  their  feet  may  be  on  one  side  their  hearts  are 
on  the  other?    Let  them  know  that  it  is  impossible  for 
them  to  walk  thus  related  to  those  on  each  side  of  this 
line,  so  as  not  to  be  injurious  to  both.     No  man  liveth 
to  himself  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself,  but  either  liv- 
ing  or  dying  he  helps  or  hinders  the  Lord  s  cause. 

It  is  not  without  a  sense  of  humiliation  that  we  feel 
obliged  to  linger  upon  these  low  grounds,  especially 
with  any  who  by  this  time  should  have  left  "pomps 
and  vanities"  far  behind  them  in  their  race  for  the 
crown  of  life.    If  unable  to  free  yourselves  from  bond- 
age to  these  elements  of  the  world,  renounced  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  Christian  life,  how  can  you  hope 
to  overcome  the  subtler  forms  of  sin,  or  contend  suc- 
cessfully with  spiritual  wickedness  in  the  high  places 
of  the  soul  ?    If  thou  hast  run  with  footmen,  and  they 
have  wearied  thee,  then  how  canst  thou  contend  with 
horses?    And  if  in  the  land  of  peace,  wherein  thou 
trustedst  they  wearied  thee,  then  how  loilt  thou  do  in 
the  swelling  of  Jordan  ? 

Let  us  eatreat  you,  then,  neither  to  participate  in 
these  things  nor  apologize  for  them,  or  countenance  them 


30      ON    THE    CHRISTIAN    PATRONAGE    OF    DANCINa. 

by  your  presence ;  but  flee  from  them  and  from  -all  the 
tempters  thereto,  like  Joseph  from  the  Egyptian 
seducer;  as  you  would  not  be  of  disputed  and  doubtful 
piety,  even  in  the  world's  judgment;  as  you  would  set 
an  example  which  he  who  shall  preach  your  funeral 
sermon  may  exhort  all  to  follow;  as  you  would  have 
the  testimony  of  a  good  conscience  and  boldness  in  the 
day  of  judgment,  and  make  sure  of  being  numbered 
with  the  saints  in  glory  everlasting. 

But  we  stop  not  here.  We  also  ask  you  to  sustain 
v^s  w^ho  are  laboring  for  your  salvation,  as  also  for  theirs 
who  are  yet  in  the  gall  of  bitterness  and  bonds  of 
iniquity;  to  hold  up  our  hands  in  the  discharge  of 
duties  so  responsible  and  so  difficult,  not  only  by  your 
example,  but  by  your  voice  and  testimony  borne  boldly 
for  the  cause,  whenever  circumstances  call  for  it  or 
opportunity  offers.  We  Christian  brethren,  inheritors 
with  you  of  the  common  salvation,  are  chiefly  desirous, 
both  for  ourselves  and  our  people,  that  we  may  walk 
worthy  of  our  high  calling.  Why  should  wo  aspire  to 
anything  less  than  sanctification,  to  be  free  from  all 
sin,  waiting  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  holding  our- 
selves in  a  posture  of  serious  expectation  against  that 
day  when  we  shall  dwell  with  him  and  reign  with  him, 
glorified  in  his  glory  and  rejoicing  in  his  joy.  And  as 
toward  the  world  without,  why  should  we  aspire  to 
anything  less  than  freedom  from  the  very  appearance 
of  evil,  and  to  have  it  said  of  us  with  truth,  among 

WHOM   YE  SHINE   AS   LIGHTS   IN   THE   WORLD,  HOLDING 
FORTH  THE  WORD  OF  LIFE. 

Almighty  Godj  who  showest  to  them  that  are  in  error 


r 


ON   THE    CHRISTIAN   PATRONAGE    OF   DANCING.      31 

the  light  of  thy  truths  to  the  intent  that  they  may  return 
into  the  way  of  righteousness y  grant  unto  all  those  who 
are  admitted  into  the  fellowship  of  Christ's  religion^  that 
they  may  avoid  those  things  that  are  contrary  to  their 
profession,  and  follow  all  such  things  as  are  agreeable 
to  the  same,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 

Calling  on  you  to  join  us  in  the  continued  offering 
of  this  prayer,  we  are  most  affectionately  your  friends 
and  pastors  in  Christ, 


C.  W.  Andrews, 
C.  E.  Ambler, 
W.  C.  Meredith, 
Henderson  Suter, 
W.  D.  Hanson, 
T.  F.  Martin, 
Wm.  T.  Leavell, 


J.  R.  Jones, 
W.  H.  Meadb, 

B.  M.  Baker, 
James  Grammer, 

C.  H.  Page, 

A.  W.  Weddell, 
George  S.  Mat. 


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